Rory McIlroy finally won The Masters at the 17th time of asking, and Collin Morikawa was seemingly just as nervous watching him finish as we all were.
Morikawa was around two hours ahead of McIlroy on the final day at The Masters, and the 28-year-old ended up finishing in a tie for 14th.
After the thrilling climax at Augusta National, Morikawa sent a congratulatory message to McIlroy, and admitted that his putter let him down.
The two-time major winner would undoubtedly have been inspired by watching the Northern Irishman finally get his hands on a green jacket.
McIlroy proved that perseverance and hard work always pay off in the end.
On multiple occasions throughout Masters Sunday, it seemed like the 35-year-old would come up short once again.
However, he battled through in the end and made history by becoming only the sixth player to ever complete the Grand Slam.
Collin Morikawa on Rory McIlroy’s missed putt on 18 at The Masters
Morikawa was watching McIlroy finish at Augusta National like every other golf fan around the world.
When McIlroy missed his putt on the 18th hole in regulation there was very much a sense that he had blown the best chance he had to win a green jacket.
Morikawa opened up on McIlroy’s thrilling win at The Masters when speaking on The Dan on Golf podcast.
He said, “Truly, when I look back at it, for me as a professional golfer since 2019, honestly this is the biggest thing that has happened when I was playing, right. I mean, I’ve seen history being made, Tiger winning in 2019, I was in college still, this was right before I even know that I’m going to have a chance of playing on the PGA Tour. But this was something that, yeh, absolutely I’m going to appreciate. I’m going to witness, and remember where I was at and remember how it happened.
“A lot of emotions, we all went through the emotions of what was going on. Even when I was playing, I saw him double the first hole and I was like, ‘man, there’s not a person in history who has had that much pressure to have to accomplish in the five hour window that he had. And golf is so difficult because, honestly, one shot can derail you for the rest of the day. You would have thought, double bogey, how does he get back from that, but he just kept fighting. If you look at Rory’s career, he is obviously someone who has never given up and he never will. That just showed.
Then Morikawa shared why he knew that McIlroy would miss his putt to win on the 18th hole in regulation play.
The 28-year-old explained, “18 fairway in regulation he hits the fairway and I think it’s over, and then he hits the shot, and then all of these shots go through my head. I mean I was there in like, 2023 or 2022 when we both had this bunker shot, and we both holed out. So I was like, ‘all you’ve got to do is hit a chunk and run, let it go to the hole’. I actually had the same par putt he had that day, and I knew just by where he was aiming, because of the pressure, maybe he didn’t want to give up the hole. I was putting for 20th place on Sunday, so for me, I could play it a little outside, I knew it was going to break. For him to do that, come back in a play-off, props to him, it was incredible to watch and you could see just how relieved he is.“
Morikawa explains reason for caddie split
The 28-year-old officially split with his caddie JJ Jakovac last week.
And Morikawa opened up on the reasons why, when speaking on the Dan on Golf podcast.
He said, “Well, I mean first off, it doesn’t take away anything that JJ and I have done over the last six years. From the very beginning, he has caddied for me every single tournament, I think he skipped one tournament for the birth of his second boy. I just want to first thank him, because you can’t take away any of that. What we accomplished, our relationship, our friendship, that doesn’t just go away because of what has happened.
“But addressing why I split up with him, essentially is because sometimes things are just not feeling right. When people look at it from a micro perspective and think Collin is playing great, he’s contending, he’s trying to close out tournaments, but sometimes on the golf course things just don’t feel right. When you look back at it, it’s a partnership, it’s a team effort, and I think for both of us, I take ownership on part of it and I think he takes ownership as well. When you’re out there you want to be vibing really, really well, you want everything to be out there, you don’t want to be holding back. I think we were both holding back in a way, where we just weren’t vibing.
“When you look at how I played earlier on in my career, I was having a lot of fun and smiling a lot. There was a sense of enjoyment and I think for both of us, the stress was kind of building a little bit on decision making, on certain little things, and unfortunately it got to a point where I had to make a change. Sometimes you need a little switch up and that’s where it came to be.”
Now all that remains to be seen is whether or not Morikawa can start winning again.
His first opportunity to do so will be at The Truist Championship this week, although he will have his work cut-out with a red-hot Rory McIlroy in the field.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
